Italian ‘paradise’ turns into sex trade hell for girls from Nigeria

NIGERIAN girls as young as 13 are being trafficked to Italy to work as prostitutes.

They are promised jobs as babysitters and hairdressers when they arrive but instead end up selling themselves on the streets, terrified into submission by threats of gang rape and voodoo curses.

According to Italian investigative journalist and author Anna Pozzi, teenage girls and young women sitting in laybys are a common sight on the periphery of Italy’s major cities, and even along country lanes in provincial regions. Nigerians make up the biggest nationality crossing the Mediterranean from Libya, and many are destined for the sex trade.

Ms Pozzi, an expert on the sex trade and author of the book Slave Merchants, said: “There are girls aged 13, 14 and 15 on the streets now – a lot of them are under age. They are so young and they are living such terrible experiences.”

She added: “They dream of a better life in Europe. They see Italy as a paradise.”

It is estimated that 80 per cent of Nigerian teenage girls and young women who make it to Italy find themselves forced into the sex trade. One woman who escaped was Blessing Okoedion, 29. “The number of girls on the street is increasing and some of them are very young,” said Ms Okoedion, author of The Courage of Freedom.

The girls live in terror of their madams as well as Nigerian criminals who organise the trade with Italian criminal networks. Even churches are involved – Ms Okoedion claims one preacher she came across is a well-known trafficker.

The girls are told they must pay £27,000 or more to win back their freedom and sell themselves for as little as €10 (£8.90) a time.